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Parent Category: Advanced News Lessons

Category: Relationships Lessons

Written by Chris Cotter

For the first time in US history, traditional marriage has ceased to be the preferred living choice in most households. It's by no means dead, but data released in August indicated that marriage didn't figure into 56.8 million American family households. That figure represents 50.2 percent of the total. By comparison, six years ago, married couples made up 52 percent of the 105.5 million households.

Single women headed more than 14 million households, and another 5 million by single men. Most interesting, or alarming, depending on which side of the conservative-liberal line you perch, were the large number of "non-family households." This term refers primarily to gay or heterosexual couples cohabiting out of formal wedlock.

The shift could herald drastic changes in every facet of American life, from family law to national politics with its emphasis on family values. In the short term, however, it indicates the failed efforts of conservatives, despite their push to reinforce and emphasize traditional marriage and families.

Douglas Beshavor, a sociologist with the American Enterprise Institute, suggested that cohabitation and short-term relationships would dominate American life for years to come. As a result, people will find themselves more isolated than ever before. Both parents will be working, so there will be fewer siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles. America will move towards a much more individualistic society.

"Change is in the air," he said. "The only question is whether it is catastrophic or just evolutionary."